Timmins City Council offered to sell the centre to the mining company Goldcorp in early January after finding that it would cost taxpayers $300,000 annually to keep the country singer's tribute running.

Shania's management company, Maple Leaf Productions, originally loaned the centre about $1 million of memorabilia including awards and clothing.

Shania's still the one: Canada's country queen

However, its struggling financial situation led Maple Leaf to remove most of the collection celebrating her early career and rise to fame. There simply weren't enough visitors to support the cost of keeping the lights on.

An analysis in 2011 by PKF Consulting found the centre cost $10 million to build, some of which came from federal government funding.

Shania didn't attend the grand opening in 2001 because she was pregnant, according to the website's timeline of events.